Diaz was born and raised in
Connecticut, United States, and moved to Puerto Rico when she was 10 years old.[3][4] She was raised as a
Pentecostal and
Baptist.[3]
Before competing on RuPaul's Drag Race, she worked in sales for 8 years.[5] She first performed in drag as a fill-in for a talent show, where she impersonated
Madonna, but was hesitant to return to drag until she was asked by friends to fill in as
Kimberly Wyatt in a
Pussycat Dolls impersonation act for
Pride. She was convinced to fill in by her then-boyfriend, and decided to continue pursuing drag afterwards.[3][5] Her drag name is composed of "Kandy", because she describes herself as sweet and was suggested to her by a friend, as well as "Ho", because she needed something "raunchy" to "spice up" the name and was suggested the name by her then-boyfriend.[5][6]
Career
Originally from
Cayey, Puerto Rico, she rose to prominence on the
seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2015,[7][8][9] and later competed on the
second season Chilean version of Drag Race, The Switch Drag Race, in 2018, where she represented Puerto Rico.[10] She was accepted onto Drag Race after only auditioning once.[5] During her run on season 7 she was notably critiqued by
Michelle Visage for her makeup contouring looking like she had painted on a beard, with Visage's reaction of wagging her finger and saying "no" being turned into a popular GIF.[11]
In 2019 she was ranked by
Vulture as one of the most powerful drag queens in America.[12]
^
abcRiviera, Samara (14 May 2015).
"Kandy Ho – Hey, Hey, Ho'!". adelantemagazine.com. Adelante Magazine.
Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2023.